Ludlow Fair

Last updated
Ludlow Fair
Written by Lanford Wilson
CharactersRachel, Agnes
Date premieredFebruary 1, 1965 (1965-02-01)
Place premieredNew York City
Original language English
Genre One-act play

Ludlow Fair is a one-act play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. It was first produced at Caffe Cino in 1965, a coffeehouse and theatre founded by Joe Cino, a pioneer of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement. [1] [2]

Contents

Production history

The play was originally supposed to premiere as a double bill with Adrienne Kennedy's The Owl Answers , with both plays directed by Michael Kahn. Kahn and Lucille Lortel asked Wilson to remove a four-letter word from his play, which he agreed to. When Lortel wrote to Wilson's agent, she also asked him to change the term "pissed off", then further stated, "Throughout I feel there are entirely too many 'Christs.' I feel it is possible to make a true and telling point without undue vulgarity, as Miss Kennedy's play proves." Wilson did not agree to these changes. [3]

The play premiered at the Caffe Cino in February 1965. It was directed and designed by Neil Flanagan, with lighting design by Dennis Parichy. The cast featured Martha Galphin (Rachel) and Jennie Ventriss (Agnes). [4] It then premiered off-Broadway, in a double bill with The Madness of Lady Bright , at Theater East. The double bill opened on March 22 and closed on April 3, 1966. It was directed by William Hunt, with set and lighting design by David F. Segal and costume design by Kapi Reith. The off-Broadway cast featured Sasha von Scherler (Agnes) and Ann Wedgeworth (Rachel). [5]

In the spring of 1967, a Lanford Wilson festival was produced for the tenth anniversary of the Caffe Cino. The cast featured Brandy Carson and Sandy Lessin. [6] In the 1970s, Conchata Ferrell was acting at Circle Repertory Company and wanted to do a revival of Ludlow Fair. Trish Hawkins was cast opposite Ferrell, and after Wilson saw this production, he cast both actresses in The Hot l Baltimore (1973). [7]

In 1976, Ludlow Fair was triple billed with The Madness of Lady Bright and The Family Continues at the NYTE Arena Theatre in New York City, directed by Pam Billig. [8] In 1980, it was quadruple billed at the Manhattan Conservatory Theater as Summer, Sex, and Sanity. The four plays included were Ernest Thompson's A Good Time, Tennessee Williams' This Property is Condemned , Arthur Kopit's Chamber Music , and Ludlow Fair. [9] Ludlow Fair was double billed with Terence Rattigan's All On Her Own, featuring Alicia Springer, Jo Damiano, and Marina Cross, at the No Smoking Playhouse in 1982. [10]

Plot summary

The Village Voice describes the play as:

"... a bedtime story about two girl roommates. Rachael is glamorous, fast-living, sometimes lost in her own self-dramatizations; Agnes is plain, matter-of-fact, her shyness masked by a kooky personality. The play is ostensibly about Rachael: She turned her latest boyfriend in to the police when he stole from her, and now she is remorseful—now she decides she is in love with him. Agnes tries to cheer her up with wisecracks, then tries to rekindle her self-awareness, and finally Rachael goes to sleep. Agnes is left alone, thinking about her lunch date with the boss' disappointing son tomorrow. And suddenly it is her play, the realist is the true romantic. Agnes' unprepossessing but real emotions outweigh Rachel's trumped-up, self-indulgent flourishes, and suddenly the play is simple and moving." [11]

Related Research Articles

Lanford Wilson was an American playwright. His work, as described by The New York Times, was "earthy, realist, greatly admired [and] widely performed." Wilson helped to advance the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement with his earliest plays, which were first produced at the Caffe Cino beginning in 1964. He was one of the first playwrights to move from Off-Off-Broadway to Off-Broadway, then Broadway and beyond.

<i>The Hot l Baltimore</i> Play written by Lanford Wilson

The Hot L Baltimore is a play by Lanford Wilson set in the lobby of the Hotel Baltimore. The plot focuses on the residents of the decaying property, who are faced with eviction when the structure is condemned. The play draws its title from the hotel's neon marquee with a burned-out "e" that was never replaced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Patrick (playwright)</span> American poet

Robert Patrick is an American playwright, poet, lyricist, short story writer, and novelist. He was born Robert Patrick O'Connor in Kilgore, Texas.

Balm in Gilead is a 1965 play written by American playwright Lanford Wilson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucille Lortel</span> American actress

Lucille Lortel was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for Tony Awards: As Is by William M. Hoffman, Angels Fall by Lanford Wilson, Blood Knot by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema's Sarafina!, and A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing. She also produced Marc Blitzstein's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, a production which ran for seven years and according to The New York Times "caused such a sensation that it...put Off-Broadway on the map."

The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by director Marshall W. Mason, playwright Lanford Wilson, director Rob Thirkield, and actress Tanya Berezin, all of whom were veterans of the Caffe Cino. The plan was to establish a pool of artists — actors, directors, playwrights and designers — who would work together in the creation of plays. In 1974, The New York Times critic Mel Gussow acclaimed Circle Rep as the "chief provider of new American plays."

Home Free! is a one-act play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. The play is among Wilson's earlier works, and was first produced off-off-Broadway at the Caffe Cino in 1964.

Francis Edward Paxton Whitehead is an English actor, theatre director, and playwright. He was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Pellinore in the 1980 revival of Camelot. He has had many Broadway roles. He is also known for his film roles and is well known, especially to US and television audiences in general, for his many guest appearances on several US shows, especially guest appearances on major sitcoms of the 1990s, such as Frasier, Caroline in the City, Ellen, 3rd Rock from the Sun,The Drew Carry Show, Mad About You, and Friends.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall W. Mason</span>

Marshall W. Mason is an American theater director, educator, and writer. Mason founded the Circle Repertory Company in New York City and was artistic director of the company for 18 years (1969–1987). He received an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in 1983. In 2016, he received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater.

The New York Innovative Theatre Awards are accolades given annually by the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation, a not-for-profit arts organization founded in 2004, to honor individuals and organizations who have achieved artistic excellence in off-off-Broadway theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Cino</span> American theatrical producer

Joseph Cino, was an Italian-American theatre producer. The Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement is generally credited to have begun at Cino's Caffe Cino in the West Village of Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucille Lortel Theatre</span> Off-Broadway theater in New York City

The Lucille Lortel Theatre is an off-Broadway playhouse at 121 Christopher Street in Manhattan's West Village. It was built in 1926 as a 590-seat movie theater called the New Hudson, later known as Hudson Playhouse. The interior is largely unchanged to this day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doric Wilson</span> American dramatist

Doric Wilson was an American playwright, director, producer, critic and gay rights activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Butler Harner</span> American actor (born 1970)

Jason Thomas Butler Harner is an American actor.

Dennis Parichy is an American lighting designer. He won the 1980 Drama Desk Award for Talley's Folly and the Obie Award in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H.M. Koutoukas</span> American dramatist

H.M. "Harry" Koutoukas was a surrealist playwright, actor and teacher. Along with Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Doric Wilson, Tom Eyen and Robert Patrick, Koutoukas was among the artists who gave birth to the Off-Off Broadway theatre movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Theatre Genesis was an off-off-Broadway theater founded in 1964 by Ralph Cook. Located in the historic St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village of Manhattan, it produced the work of new American playwrights, including Lanford Wilson, Tony Barsha, Murray Mednick, Leonard Melfi, Walter Hadler, and Sam Shepard. Theatre Genesis is often credited as one of the original off-off-Broadway theaters, along with Joe Cino's Caffe Cino, Ellen Stewart's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and Judson Poets Theatre.

The Madness of Lady Bright is a short play by Lanford Wilson, among the earliest of the gay theatre movement. The play was first performed at Joe Cino's Caffe Cino in May 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanya Berezin</span> American actress

Tanya Berezin is an American actress, co-founder and an artistic director of Circle Repertory Company in New York City, and educator. She has performed on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and has also appeared in a number of films and television series.

Michael Warren Powell was an American artistic director, director, actor and designer involved in the Off-Off-Broadway movement, Off-Broadway and in the development of new American plays.

References

  1. ↑ "Lanford Wilson: The Mozart From Missouri". Caffe Cino Pictures. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Theater". New York . 15 (3): 85. January 1982.
  3. ↑ Greene, Alexis. "Chapter 5" Lucille Lortel: The Queen of Off Broadway, Hal Leonard Corporation, 2004. ISBN   0879103027, p. 210.
  4. ↑ Wilson, Lanford. "Introduction. Script" in Ludlow Fair and Home Free!, Dramatists Play Service Inc., 1993. ISBN   0822216280, p. 4.
  5. ↑ "Ludlow Fair" Lortel.org. Accessed January 14, 2016.
  6. ↑ Stone, Wendell C. "The End of the Cobra Cult" in Caffe Cino, SIU Press, 2005. ISBN   0809388316, p. 155.
  7. ↑ Shewey, Don. "Lanford Wilson" DonShewey.com.
  8. ↑ "In and Around Town" New York Magazine , October 4, 1976, p. 21.
  9. ↑ "Theater Listing" New York Magazine , July 28, 1980. Vol. 13, No. 29, ISSN 0028-7369, p. 66.
  10. ↑ "Theater" New York Magazine, January 18, 1982, Vol. 15, No. 3, ISSN 0028-7369, p. 85
  11. ↑ Wilson, Lanford. "Ludlow Fair" DramaList.com.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.